Delbende

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Idealized representation of Ludwig I, the pious, as “ miles Christi ” (soldier of Christ) around 831 in a figure poem by Rabanus Maurus , a copy of his book De laudibus sanctae crucis from 825/26, subsequently pre-bound; Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Codex Vat. Reg. Lat. 124, folio 4 verso.

Delbende is the name of a place north of the Elbe , where the Frankish Emperor Ludwig the Pious had a castle of the same name built in 822.

source

Delbende Castle is only mentioned in the Reichsannalen for the year 822:

Meanwhile, the Saxons built a castle on the emperor's orders on the other side of the Elbe at a place called Delbende, after they had driven out the Slavs who had previously occupied it, and occupied it with a garrison from Saxony against their incursions.

Historical background

After the Abodrites defeated the Saxons in the battle on the Sventana Field as allies of the Franks in 798 , Charlemagne had thousands of Saxons expelled from their settlement areas north of the Elbe and resettled in 804. He left parts of the Saxon settlement area to the Abodrites, combined with the idea that they could claim the land north of the Elbe for the Franks against the Danes. This hope was already disappointed in 808, when the Danes under Göttrick defeated the Abodrites and made them subject to tribute. Thereupon the Franks occupied Northern Albingia and built Esesfelth Castle in 809 as a border castle against the Danes. To the east, the Franks delimited their political sphere of influence against the Abodrites through the Limes Saxoniae . The Abodritic military leader Drasco had lost respect and allegiance to his people due to the defeat. The alliance was therefore of little military value to the Franks. Nevertheless, it lasted until 815. But already in 817 the Abodrites besieged the Esesfelth castle together with the Danes without success and finally in 819 created an important military base with Liubice , from which the areas south of the Elbe were threatened. In response to this threat, the Delbende was erected against the Abodrites in 822.

location

The exact location of the castle is still unknown today. The source indicates that it was in a place to the right of the Elbe called Delbende, from which the Slavs had to be expelled again. This could point to the entire Saxon area before 804 as well as to a location immediately west of the Limes Saxoniae . Because the mentioned Slavs will very likely be the Abodrites due to the political events of the previous years. In addition, the costly construction and maintenance of a fortress with permanent occupation as well as its maintenance makes it obvious to build such a castle at a place of military and economic importance, for example on a long-distance trade route. Castle walls on the high north bank of the Elbe in Schnakenbek and at the mouth of the Delvenau near Lauenburg / Elbe are therefore being considered . In addition, the Delbende was also in Büchen and is now suspected to be in Gothmann again . Also Boizenburg has been discussed as a location. However, no excavation finds from the 9th century have been found for any of these locations:

Schnakenbek: Wall passage of the former gate system from the north

Immediately on the northern steep bank of the Elbe near Schnakenbek, an arched ring wall encloses an area of ​​65 by 100 meters, on the side facing away from the Elbe it is surrounded by a ditch that was deepened in the 11th century. The castle complex is located above the Elbe ford on the Alte Salzstrasse . A wall cut in 1951 and an excavation in 1979 unearthed late Slavic shards, German ceramics from the 12th century and a denarius Heinrich the Lion . The castle is mostly identified as the Ertheneburg , first mentioned in a document in 1106 , and equated with the Delbende.

In a meadow east of Lauenburg between Delvenau and Elbe with the field name Au, there was an elevation from the past. This elevation is mentioned in a document at the end of the 16th century as the ancient, former "Burgplatz". The name Delb ende for the mouth of the Delvenau could make sense here. Today the train station of the city of Lauenburg is located here.

To the south of Büchen there was a ring wall in the dolphin valley, of which nothing can be seen today. There is documentary evidence of a castle belonging to the von Marschalk family in Büchen from the beginning of the 15th century, and the field name Burgwiese attested to the complex until the 19th century . A ford is said to have led through the Delvenau to the south of the Steinau estuary, the first Delvenau crossing north of the Elbe into the Abodriten area. The strategically favorable location of a castle on the way east to the land of the Abodrites
is an ideal place for the Delbende.

Boizenburg: View from the south over the Burgplatz onto the wall

On the eastern edge of the Bollenberg near Gothmann , misleadingly referred to as Schloss Berg in the Schmettauschen map , was the Castrum Wotmunde from 1181 to 1224 , a wooden castle about 75 meters (WO) by 55 meters from its moat in the north Another section has been preserved. Excavation finds do not allow a dating long before 1181. The Delbende is also suspected here. The advocates of this view shift the course of the Limes Saxoniae in this section from the Delvenau to the east to the Boize and translate the source text in loco with area . However, there is no discussion of the excavation results so far.

In Boizenburg , besides a Slavic low castle, there was another castle complex on the high bank of the Elbe, the Schlossberg. The 14th century castle was blown up during the Thirty Years War by the withdrawing Danes. The oval Burgplatz with an extension of 60-65 meters (WO) by 90 meters is open to the steep bank of the Elbe and is also surrounded by an arched, 5-meter-high wall, which is followed by a ditch up to 6 meters deep. From the Schlossberg, the Elbe can be seen far to the south and west. The point is therefore well suited to control the Elbe crossing and should therefore be considered as the location of the Delbende.

literature

  • Fred Ruchhöft: Is the castrum Delbende in Mecklenburg? In: Archaeological reports from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Volume 12, 2005, pages 163–166
  • Wilhelm-Christian Kersting: The Limes Saxoniae and the Castellum Delbende. In: Lauenburgische Heimat Neue Episode Vol. 16, May 1957, Pages 1–15

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annales regni Francorum 822: Saxones interea iussu imperatoris castellum quoddam trans Albiam in loco, cui Delbende nomen, aedificant, depulsis ex eo Sclavis, qui illum prius occupaverant, praesidiumque Saxonum in eo positum contra incursiones illorum.
  2. ↑ The Latin in loco cui is singular. Loco then means place, place, place, place. The translation as a region would require the plural in loci qui to be used.
  3. ↑ Annales regni Francorum 804  : In the summer, however, the emperor moved with an army to Saxony and led all Saxons who lived across the Elbe (...) with their wives and children to Franconia and gave the areas across the Elbe to the Abodrites.
  4. ^ Annales regni Francorum 809
  5. ^ Henning Hellmuth Andersen: Power politics around northern Albingia at the beginning of the 9th century. In: Archaeological correspondence sheet. Vol. 10 (1980), page 83
  6. ↑ Walter Eugen Dührsen: Erteneburg.Eine historical-topographical sketch. In: Archives of the Association for the History of the Duchy of Lauenburg, Annual Volume 1886, Page 297 weblink ; Hermann Hofmeister : The fortifications of northern Albania. Issue 2, 1. Office of the Principality of Ratzeburg, 2. District of the Duchy of Lauenburg : Lübeck 1927; Doubtful Wolfgang Prange : Settlement history of the state of Lauenburg in the Middle Ages (= sources and research on the history of Schleswig-Holstein. Vol. 41, ISSN  0173-0940 ). Wachholtz, Neumünster 1960 (also: Kiel, Universität, Dissertation, 1958), page 163 fn. 214 with a reference to missing excavation finds from the 9th century
  7. ^ H. Handelmann: The limes Saxoniae in the districts of Stormarn and Duchy of Lauenburg. In: Archives of the Association for the History of the Duchy of Lauenburg 1889, page 104 f. online version
  8. ↑ To this ring wall Karl Kersten : Prehistory of the Duchy of Lauenburg district. Neumünster 1951, page 178
  9. ^ Ludwig Hellwig: The German place names in Lauenburg. In: Archives of the Association for the History of the Duchy of Lauenburg, Annual Volume 1892, page 48
  10. ↑ Crossing the Delvenauniederung between Lauenburg and Boizenburg was only possible after the Horster Damm (today's B5) was built in the 16th century, Wolfgang Prange: Siedlungsgeschichte des Landes Lauenburg in the Middle Ages (= sources and research on the history of Schleswig-Holstein. Volume 41, ISSN  0173-0940 ). Wachholtz, Neumünster 1960, page 48
  11. ^ Heinrich Harten: Reflections on the southern course of the Limes Saxoniae. Lauenburgische Heimat 13, November 1956, pages 103-104; following him: Wilhelm-Christian Kersting: The Limes Saxoniae and the Castellum Delbende. Lauenburgische Heimat 16, May 1957, page 9
  12. ^ Willi Bastian: Burgwallaufnahme Mecklenburgs. (unpublished), LHA Schwerin, documents of the State Office for Ground Monument Preservation, quoted from: Siegfried Spantig: Das castrum Wotmunde. In: Siegfried Spantig: In the wheel of history. Local history from the Boize to the Sudebogen. Eichenverlag, Hagenow 2003, pages 35-39
  13. ^ Walter Richter: The Limes Saxoniae on the eastern bank of the Elbe. ZSHG 1980 (volume 105), page 21 f., Following him: Fred Ruchhöft: From the Slavic tribal area to the German bailiwick. The development of the territories in Ostholstein. Lauenburg, Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania in the Middle Ages. (= Archeology and History in the Baltic Sea Region, Volume 4), Rahden / Westf. 2008, ISBN 978-3-89646-464-4 , page 71
  14. ^ Richter did not know Bastian's excavation results from the 1960s as a result of the division of Germany.
  15. ↑ Fred Ruchhöft: Is the castrum Delbende in Mecklenburg? In: Archaeological reports from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Volume 12, 2005, pages 163–166